Yesterday was Blog for Domestic Workers Day -- in support of the Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights. The legislation is particular to New York State, but the issue certainly isn't. In several of the states that passed ballot initiatives to increase the minimum wage last fall, legislatures have introduced bills that would ensure the wage increases don't apply to certain employees -- including domestic workers. Why is this a feminist issue? Roughly 98.5 percent of domestic workers are women. Plain and simple.
Seems like the perfect time to link to this Mother Jones profile of Juana Nicholas, a former nanny and housekeeper who is now an activist and organizer with the Household Workers Project, "a grassroots labor group made up of immigrant women who clean houses and care for children across the Los Angeles region." After getting the state assembly to pass legislation (which was later vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger -- hissss) mandating overtime pay for domestic workers, the women who comprise the Household Workers Project set their sights on organizing a union. Says one of the women involved in the effort,
"If we've managed to write a bill, why can't we start our own union?" asks 62-year-old Rosa Gonzalez. "So many of us are treated like animals, like robots. But the things that matter most to our employers, the things that they love most -- their children and their homes -- are literally put in our hands. And still they treat us this way. We have to know our rights, and we will stand up for ourselves."
Also check out the ACLU's report on how migrant domestic workers are treated by diplomats and staff of international organizations. It's chilling.
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What the hell is the point of raising minimum wage if the ones who need the money the most are going to be exempted from it? Uhg!
The ACLU report is chilling. I never understood why "diplomatic immunity" was necessary. It seems like that if they work in this country, then they should be subject to our laws. I guess the concept of diplomatic immunity was thought up to protect the representative of the industrialize world from the kangaroo courts of the third worlds, but how do we penalize those with diplomatic immunity who exercise truly inhumane behavior?
"If we've managed to write a bill, why can't we start our own union?"
Why can't they? Is it in the constitution that they can't unionize?
ACLU report is indeed shocking. It's legal slavery...average hourly wage calculated to be $2.14 for domestics working for diplomats!?
Why should there be a $14 an hour minimum wage for domestic workers when the minimum wage for a fast food chef or store clerk is $7.15? If it's because they lack various legal protections that other employees have, then wouldn't it be better to simply legislate those protections? (On a side note, what about the domestic employers that are already breaking the law by hiring people who can't legally work in the United States or paying them "off the books" to avoid taxes and other regulations?)
On the other hand, this part of the bill is something that sounds significantly more reasonable...
Why is legislation that may even remotely help women so full of loopholes?